


Traditions

by jalendavi_lady



Series: Nieces and Nephews [9]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-31
Updated: 2010-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-14 06:23:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jalendavi_lady/pseuds/jalendavi_lady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She never thought she could have a Narnian wedding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Traditions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cereta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cereta/gifts).



Susan had never thought it would be possible.

She was barred from Narnia by Aslan. She had learned, through events she'd be replaying in her mind for the rest of her days, that Narnia was well and truly gone.

She had thought, for a brief time after the railway accident, that no one else left in the world had traveled to other worlds. Sure, the professor had mentioned that others might exist, but he'd never introduced them to any and they certainly hadn't knowingly met other travelers themselves.

But the world had surprised her with friends who had been elsewhere and knew what mattered once a person had attained their true age again, as well as contact with a group of Telmarines who remembered their culture from their other world - a culture that had been crossed with that of Archenland and Narnia for generations before Caspian the Conqueror was born.

And they were all willing to help.

(It certainly didn't hurt that her fiance not only was willing to play along - knowing, as a fellow traveler between worlds, about who she had been the last time she had grown into womanhood - but plunged headlong into the preparations.)

* * *

They had the proper English church wedding first, of course. Flowers, choir, Eustace's parents there as the only blood relations she had left. A few of her and the groom's traveler friends attended simply because their relationships in the everyday world required their presence.

Bertram gave her away, because he had no one left, she had no one left, and what was an honorary grandfather-figure and mentor of your favorite brother for if not to see you down the aisle safely?

Her aunt and uncle spent the reception commenting on how autumn was not meant for weddings.

* * *

They had the _real_ ceremony that night.

It was a crisp clear autumn night, the kind Narnians held to be most auspicious for a wedding, which was to them the harvest of a fresh attraction followed by a courtship of deepening affection to be followed by a long winter snuggled up together beside the fire of a new home.

(It didn't hurt that autumn was the natural pairing-off season for the species most of the Talking Beasts had been elevated from by Aslan, but she wasn't about to tell the Telmarines present that particular origin of _their_ wedding customs.)

She was dressed in orange and he in red to match the trees, which had been the custom in Cair Paravel.

(Narnians did not wear black. Some - very few - Calormene men did, and there was some black in the traditional Telmarine military uniform, but black-dyed fabric was rare from one end of that world to the other.)

There was a slight bump in the ceremony, as the mother of the bride was supposed to attest to her womanhood and maturity in the place where Bertram had symbolically handed her off that morning.

Susan found herself weeping for the first time since that morning when Prunaprisma offered her confirmation as a fellow queen, especially when she recognized the much older woman - it was a marvel she was still around at that age - had come dressed for the role.

And then there were the vows, and the kiss, and the first dance taken from the altar through the door and out into the country night, leading everyone into an outdoor dance party that only ended when the sun rose in the morning and everyone yelled well wishes on the very literal dawning of their new life together.

She was still smiling a few hours later, both back in their proper British wedding clothes, as they ritually danced across the threshold of their home - it had been her parents', and later hers, but now it was _theirs_ \- even as a few neighbors stared.


End file.
